On the witness stand in Lowndes County Circuit Court Wednesday, Joseph Mickens Jr. told a jury how early on the morning of June 23, 2014, he was robbed at gunpoint and threatened by his former high school classmate Keenan Montgomery.
“He made me get down on my hands and knees,” Mickens said. “(He said) if I called the police, he had a scanner and he’d come back and shoot me.”
The robbery in question happened at the Ramada Inn on Highway 45, where Mickens — the son of Ward 2 Columbus City Councilman Joseph Mickens Sr. — worked as a night clerk the summer of 2014.
For Montgomery, it’s the second time heading to trial for two counts of armed robbery, for the Ramada incident and a hold-up the next day at Fairfield Inn and Suites. His trial continues today.
Montgomery’s first trial in December ended in a mistrial when one juror was excused for a medical issue and two others realized halfway through the trial they knew Montgomery’s parents.
Wednesday was also Mickens’ second time recounting for a jury the events of the incident at Ramada when he said Montgomery — dressed in all black — entered the hotel, pointed a gun at him and demanded money from both the counter drawer and the hotel’s safe. Mickens testified that once he told Montgomery he didn’t know the combination to the safe, the defendant threatened to return if he heard on a police scanner that Mickens had called the police.
“I was afraid for my life,” Mickens said.
Mickens also testified he was “absolutely sure” Montgomery was the person who robbed him, despite not recognizing him as someone he attended Columbus High School with until the day after the robbery.
The state also presented a surveillance video from the night in question that appears to show a black man dressed in black going into the hotel and interacting with Mickens behind the counter while holding a gun in his hand.
Mickens testified he waited “a few minutes” before calling the police — a point Montgomery’s attorney, Carrie Jourdan, seized on when cross-examining him. She pointed out how in the video, the suspect appears to not be holding a scanner as he leaves the building, meaning he couldn’t have been listening to one at that time.
“Why didn’t you simply step back (and call 911)?” Jourdan asked.
“All I know is, this guy has a gun in his hand,” Mickens replied.
Mickens was the first witness prosecutors with District Attorney Scott Colom’s office called to the stand Wednesday. He was followed by Tiffany Young, former clerk at Fairfield Inn and Suites, and investigators with the Columbus Police Department who handled the robbery cases.
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